Camrin D Braun, Alice Della Penna, Martin C Arostegui, Pedro Afonso, Michael L Berumen, Barbara A Block, Craig A Brown, Jorge Fontes, Miguel Furtado, Austin J Gallagher, Peter Gaube, Walter J Golet, Jeff Kneebone, Bruno C L Macena, Gonzalo Mucientes, Eric S Orbesen, Nuno Queiroz, Brendan D Shea, Jason Schratwieser, David W Sims, Gregory B Skomal, Derke Snodgrass, Simon R Thorrold
Many predator species make regular excursions from near-surface waters to the twilight (200 to 1,000 m) and midnight (1,000 to 3,000 m) zones of the deep pelagic ocean. While the occurrence of significant vertical movements into the deep ocean has evolved independently across taxonomic groups, the functional role(s) and ecological significance of these movements remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate results from satellite tagging efforts with model predictions of deep prey layers in the North Atlantic Ocean to determine whether prey distributions are correlated with vertical habitat use across 12 species of predators...
November 21, 2023: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America